1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device capable of extracting output control information, a control method thereof, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, along with the spread of MFPs (Multifunction Peripherals), a problem of unauthorized output of document is increasing. As countermeasure technology for the problem, there is, for example, technology to suppress copy of a specific document and as the copy suppression technology, mention is made of the following methods.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H04-009963(1992) discloses a method which attaches copy inhibit information to a document in advance and inhibits copy of the document when a copy machine reads the document and detects the copy inhibit information.
As an example of a code that includes copy inhibit information and is embedded in a document, there is a QR code (registered trademark) disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H10-312447 (1998). The QR code described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H10-312447(1998) is used more widely compared to the one-dimensional barcode used in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H04-009963(1992).
Because the two-dimensional code, such as the QR code, is a quadrangular code and the code itself has high visibility, the readability of the document itself is reduced unless the position where the code is attached on the document is taken into consideration. Hence, such a two-dimensional code is often used being attached to a specifically fixed position on a document.
When the MFP capable of controlling output based on output control information, such as copy inhibit information, detects output control information, such as a two-dimensional code attached to a document, much time is required for image processing for detection when the detection target region is the entire surface of the document. On the other hand, when the position where output control information is attached is limited in advance and only a specific region is the detection target, time required for image processing for detection is less, however, a risk that output control information cannot be detected because of the misalignment of the document when it is set on a reading unit is increased.
In such circumstances as described above, for example, when the copy function is used, there may be a demand to limit the detection target region of output control information to only a specific region, giving priority to performance. On the other hand, when the FAX function is used, there may be a demand to set the entire surface of a document as the detection target region, giving priority to the precision of detection of output control information from the viewpoint of avoiding the risk that information leaks out. These demands are in a trade-off relationship and it is desired to change the detection target region of output control information for each function used of the MFP.